About this course

Entry requirements

This award is available for all practitioners in the field of social work or social care and will form part of their employer’s commitment to CPD alongside their own registration requirements with professional regulators.

There is a standard benchmark of a first degree at 2.2 or above in a relevant subject, but non-standard entrants with suitable experience in social care and evidence of recent study will be considered.

Applicants will normally be practitioners in an area of social care or social work.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

The PGCert award offers the opportunity of postgraduate study for practitioners in social work and social care in settings beyond specialist child care, adult and mental health teams, for example: YOT, homeless services, domestic violence, learning disabilities and substance misuse specialisms. For social workers this will provide evidence of their learning in order to meet HCPC requirements for renewing their registration. However, we would expect this course to be attractive to non-social work qualified staff as part of their continuing professional development (CPD) and career development. The core module aims to support practitioners to extend their knowledge and analytical skills in relation to their own CPD and to reflect on their capability in relation to their evolving scope of practice.

Candidates can enhance their academic qualification by progressing from a PGCert to complete the PGDiploma, or from a PGDiploma on to the MA. This is a generic route and provides a flexible and wide choice of modules. For the PGDiploma the candidate will complete a research module and choose 2 other modules from a broad range. The MA will involve a dissertation in an area of their specialist practice.

Information for international students

International applications must have an IELTS score of a minimum of 7.0.